Palladian Odyssey Sketches: Touring the Veneto

I have finally gotten around to scanning some of the sketchbooks from my big Europe trip and so today I want to share a collection of sketches that I did during our Palladian Odyssey planning trip in the Veneto region, Italy.

If you have somehow missed it, Mike Botton and I have planned a 5-day travel sketching workshop in May/June 2017 with an incredible itinerary of places to experience and sketch. Please check out the website for tour details.

These sketches are a good representation of my approach to travel sketching – making the most of tiny opportunities to sketch (2-5minutes) and then having some dedicated time to do a ‘proper sketch’. I also like to mix up my techniques and my tools depending on the time constraints, the subject matter or my mood. These strategies will form part of next year’s workshop. I can’t help getting excited about it as I post these sketches as it’s truly a stunning region of Italy and a dream come true to teach a workshop there.

So without further ado here are my sketches from our touring of the Veneto region. Note: I will share my Vicenza sketches next week.

We only had a one hour visit to Cittadella (a town with an imposing medieval wall) but I managed a number of super quick sketches. We might not visit this particular town on the Palladian Odyssey workshop, but Mike has another stunning town in mind. BTW all the remaining locations in this article are part of the tour.

Two sketches that I managed to squeeze into a few moments during a visit to Ca’ Marcello, meeting the Count and being given a quick tour of the gardens. This is one place that I’m especially looking forward to re-visiting in order to sketch and I’m delighted that we will spend a whole day at the villa during the workshop.

A gorgeous farmhouse (where we will be staying) with incredible organic local produce and lots of chickens.

Looking at this quick sketch of those tomatoes brings back memories of their incredible favour – yum!

Villa Sandi – we had a quick tour of the extensive underground cellars and I managed three very quick sketches during the tour.

I was really taken with the beautiful hilltop town of Asolo and its main square.

So much so that I had to draw a plan of it.

We then had another incredible meal…

… with a big wow view!

Now time for some Palladio!

First Villa Barbaro…

and it’s associated Tempietto (sketched sitting in a drain on the side of the road).

And another view of it.

Villa Emo – a long composite perspective view sitting in the shade of a big tree. (Note: the cover image is also of Villa Emo)

And finally the beautiful town of Bassano with a Palladian bridge.

Here are a few more quick sketches of it – one from a nice restaurant where we plan to have a meal on the tour.

So… do you want to join us?

Due to a little movement in the enrollments, there are still a few places available for the May tour – starting 22 May 2017.

If you are interested in attending this workshop (or go on the waiting list for the June Tour) please contact Mike.

Further reading:

My updates enroute during the planning week (including photos of the location): Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Why Palladio is one of my favourite architects : Here and here.